Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Day 36/50
Valletta, Malta
76F, sunny!
French Navy Frigate, Forbin
View of Valletta, Malta from our ship
Navy Patrol Ship
This was another wonderful day! It
started with a big boom this morning. When we looked out the balcony, we saw a
French Navy Frigate, Forbin, entering the Grand Harbor of Valletta! The
frigate, Forbin, fired a salute and then there was a reciprocal
Maltese gun salute from the Upper Barrakka Gardens. [Of course I had to figure all of that out
online]. What a beauty, and the ship was
accompanied by a French Navy Patrol Ship.
https://themalteseherald.com/2026/11/10/watch-french-frigate-forbin-recieves-gun-salute-as-it-enters-the-grand-harbour/
We had a Food Tour that we arranged
with Shore Excursions, and our next adventure was a short walk to an extreme
elevator that took us to Upper Barrakka Gardens.
Welcome to Valletta
A caution!
TK on the walk to the elevator
Elevator-very high
Views from the Upper Barrakka Gardens
Grand Harbor
Fortification wall and city
Allura and the Island Princess
Cafe in a 16th century garden
Church Steeples
TK's coffee in a great setting!
After enjoying a cup of coffee, we met our
tour guide, Tony Sammut at a reasonable hour, 10:30 a.m. There were 10 in our group—a couple from
Alabama on our cruise, 4 Brits and 2 Canadians who are vacationing in Malta.
Tony gave us a brief account of the
history of Malta: Phoenicians,
Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Spanish, French, Knights of St. John, Napoleon,
British until 1964, a Republic in 1974, entered the European Union in 2004.
Malta, an independent island nation, is
made up of three major islands with a total population of 600,000. Tourism is
important and this year they have had 6 million visitors. The archipelago is located south of Italy,
east of Tunisia, and north of Libya.
Valletta is the capital of Malta and
has an estimated population of about 5,200 residents. It is the smallest capital city in the
European Union. Valletta also holds the
title of the southernmost capital city in Europe. The Knights of St. John founded the city in
1566 after the Great Siege of Malta.
World War II was a devastating factor, as Malta endured one of the longest and
most intense aerial sieges of World War II. It served as a crucial Allied base
in the Mediterranean from June 1940 to November 1942. Perched at the heart of the Mediterranean, the
islands were bombed heavily (16,000 tons of bombs over the 3 years) yet
remained a crucial Allied base for disrupting Axis supply lines to North
Africa. The resilience of Malta’s people and defenders became a symbol of
wartime courage.
Tony showed us the Royal Opera House/Theater, a performing
arts venue in Valletta erected in 1866. The theatre received a direct hit from
Luftwaffe aerial bombing in 1942 during World War II. Prior to its destruction,
it was one of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in Valletta.
Opera House ruins
Columns from the Opera House
Royal Opera House - 1866
Along the way
Government building
Our first food stop was at Jeff’s Pastizzeria where we
enjoyed pastizzi, “Malta’s most beloved snack.”
It is a crispy golden pastry filled with savory ricotta cheese (or mushy
peas). Pastizzi was like tiropita that I had in Santorini and Erie’s Panegyrie. I guess I love crunchy pastries!
Pastizzi, considered street food!
On our way to the next food stop, we passed St. John’s Cathedral.
Tony said it might look plain on the outside, but it was an explosion of
Baroque on the inside. He also mentioned that Caravaggios’s “Beheading of St. John
the Baptist” was inside. I wanted to go there after the tour, but the line for
tickets was intimidating. Next time!
Front entrance to the Co-Cathedral of St. John
Back entrance to the Cathedral
I studied this Caravaggio in art history classes in France.
According to the Internet, echoed by my teacher, “Caravaggio’s ‘Beheading of
Saint John the Baptist’ (1608) is one of the most overwhelming images of
martyrdom in Western art. Painted for the Oratory of St. John’s Co-Cathedral in
Valletta, Malta, the vast canvas turns a prison courtyard into a stage where
time seems to stop at the exact instant of sacred violence. The scene is spare
and silent. A single brutal gesture—an executioner leaning to finish his
task—holds the entire picture in suspension, while nearby figures register
shock, pity, and ritual duty. It is Caravaggio at his most austere and monumental,
stripping away ornament so that the viewer faces the raw question of justice
and mercy.” The image of this painting
can be googled. https://classicalcanvas.org/a-complete-analysis-of-beheading-of-saint-john-the-baptist-by-caravaggio/
Our second food stop was the Museum Café--- we were taken “downstairs”
to a very small room with thick stone walls.
The food treat was a Maltese classic, “imqarrun,” a meat based baked
pasta. It was very similar to the Greek pastitsio. Ingredients could include
penne pasta, minced pork meat, tomato sauce, tomato paste, onion, garlic,
curry, cumin, paprika, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, olive oil, salt,
pepper, 2 raw eggs, milk, and kefalotiri cheese. This dish was delicious!
TK and the Museum Cafe
A few steps down to a "basement"
Delicious Baked Maltese Pasta
Imqarrun
Tony spoke about the Knights of St. John, and I am not sure
that I understood everything. We noted a large building that was used as
barracks for the Knights during the Crusades, in the period of 1530 to
1798. They transformed Malta into a
fortified stronghold, repelling the 1565 Ottoman siege, and building Valletta
as their new capital. Originally these
knights were doctors and nurses who cared for the Pilgrims during the Crusades.
A very whimsical art display at a museum
we stopped at briefly
Clothing = Plastic
Our third food stop was at the Valletta Food Market for a
plate of fava beans, mashed dark beans, pepper cheese, crackers, bread soaked
in tomato, olives, dried tomato, and sausage slices. I especially liked the
crackers and the mashed beans. Some of
our tourmates drank a Maltese beer, but we tried “Kinnie,” a soft drink made
from bitter oranges and herbs. Tony said it was an acquired taste and as I
drank more, it tasted fairly good. TK was a hard no.
Valletta Food Market
Our shared plate
Kinnie
Square
Along the way
Our final food stop (with Tony) was Tal-Kafe, Traditional
Maltese Coffee Shop. This coffee
combines coffee, chicory, cloves, and aniseed. I thought it was good, others not
so much. The pastry served with the coffee was “imqaret,” date-filled and
infused with orange and spice. That was
tasty.
Tal-Kafe
Inside Tal-Kafe
Maltese Coffee--served warm
Basket of blurry imqaret
After such a nice food tour, we were on our own. We wandered in and out of shops and then
decided to have gelato. That certainly
capped a very pleasant day in Malta.
Evergreen Gelateria
Our peach and strawberry gelato
I love Valletta! First, it is laid out
in an organized grid, and even though the city is not flat, it is easily walkable. We could not possibly get lost!
And it inspired some memories from TK’s
Navy visits. He remembered that on his way back to the USS Columbus from
Valletta on a tender ship, he actually dove into the Grand Harbor. I don’t even want to think about a young
sailor doing something like that after being on shore leave for the day. He
said he did get into a bit of trouble for doing that. Nobody would have believed he was one of the first
Rescue Divers for the Erie Fire Department thirty years later.
Good night, Malta!
TK’s Takes:
Best weather so far. We weren’t cold, even a little warm. He liked the elevator, better than walking 1/3
mile uphill. Our tour covered only a couple streets but we saw a lot of things,
things we probably would not have seen food we would not have tried. His
favorite food was the pastizzi that we had first. Sorry, Donna, no cats today.
TK's photo of a pigeon drinking out of a bowl
Where on earth are we?
